Ugh excursion costs!

[meggybear17]

Just wanted to vent my displeasure. We are scheduled for back to back Dream cruises in September. I did a lot of research and settled on the Blue lagoon dolphin encounter for our Nassau day for my DH and son (age 3.) I wanted to book myself as an observer. I tried to book directly with Blue lagoon but because of their contracts with DCL I am not able to. That's fine, I understand that and the fact that DCL wants to make a profit. BUT Blue Lagoon allows children 3 and under to participate in the dolphin encounter FREE with a paying adult and Disney wants to charge me $110 for ages 2 and up! I just can't stomach paying more than twice the price for the exact same excurscion. And while I know you have some security built in to booking with the cruise line I have cruised enough to know about leaving plenty of travel time back to the ship etc. so annoying!

 

[OurDogCisco]

Wow.. that sucks. We did our own excursion back in 2004 when my dd was 2 years old but turning 3 on the cruise and they wouldn't let us book the stingray tour in Grand Cayman. We ended up booking on our own for $100 for the 4 of us where Disney would have charged us $100 each for a total of $400. I can't believe they now limit companies from allowing private bookings. That is a major bummer.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Can you just not tell them u are on DcL?

 

[meggybear17]

Can you just not tell them u are on DcL?

I thought about submitting another reservation request under my husbands name and email. I searched the boards for threads on this and there have been some cruisers who had a hard time doing this and a few were even turned away. They require hotel info when booking, not sure if they would ask for further proof like a room key etc. I did email DCL about this, I am fine with paying the $25 or so extra that DCL charges for adults but it's the paying for my son part that stings!

 

[jockotaco]

I called blue lagoon directly and they gave me directions on how to get to the island from the ship. Try calling back.

 

[meggybear17]

I will certainly keep trying!

 

[ndabunka]

On our last trip there my wife LITERALLY walked across the road to the area where Blue Lagoon sells from and negotiated a reduced price for the excursion. We didn't tell them which ship. Just got on their ferry and enjoyed the trip. If you HAVE to book in advance, this obviously may not be an option but if you have the ability to wait and book direct with the tour company...

 

[meggybear17]

On our last trip there my wife LITERALLY walked across the road to the area where Blue Lagoon sells from and negotiated a reduced price for the excursion. We didn't tell them which ship. Just got on their ferry and enjoyed the trip. If you HAVE to book in advance, this obviously may not be an option but if you have the ability to wait and book direct with the tour company...

Thank you so much for that info! Since we are on B2B cruises we have two Nassau days and could certainly give this a shot and if we don't get it the first cruise we can try the second.

 

[lbgraves]

DCL also charges adult prices for kids at 10 and up. When both kids were this price we never booked through DCL directly for excursions. In Key West the kids were free when we paid for an adult ticket there at the booth for the trolley. In Alaska, the White Pass was half the price DCL wanted to charge for each kid. We don't do excursions that last until late or take us too far from the ship, but we won't pay that much more when the company itself offers a reduced child price and DCL jacks the price up.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

On our last trip there my wife LITERALLY walked across the road to the area where Blue Lagoon sells from and negotiated a reduced price for the excursion. We didn't tell them which ship. Just got on their ferry and enjoyed the trip. If you HAVE to book in advance, this obviously may not be an option but if you have the ability to wait and book direct with the tour company...

Was this for an animal encounter or just beach day access? I called everywhere, even independent tour companies who took my credit card, and even they could not get me on an itinerary for the sea lions when the Dream was docked. It was like DCL had bought up all the spots or something. I was panicking that with two weeks before the trip, we girls may not get on to do it! DC was my last chance and they got us 3 first thing that morning..at that point, I was so grateful, I didnt mind. I know we paid about $30 more pp but it was a great excursion and at least they actually made sure they were available to reserve. I would be interested to find out if you could just walk up and get an animal encounter short notice same day. Very risky since they only have so many and sell to all the ships. However, if you are just looking for the beach day with ferry and lunch, I'm sure you could literally buy that anywhere. My parents reserved it thru DC anyway so we could all go together. But they will sell as many of those as they can...

 

[lbgraves]

DCL does have a contract with the excursion operators that prevent them from allowing cruisers to book directly with them ahead of time. However, in every single port we have visited with DCL there have been booths along the dock with those same companies offering excursions at a lower price than DCL charges.